Shins Cast Bleak Spells in Animated ‘The Rifle’s Spiral’ Clip

“So long to this wretched form,” James Mercer snarls — well, for him it’s a snarl, OK? — on “The Rifle’s Spiral,” the first track from the Shins’ recently released Port of Morrow. The Potland, Oregan-based songwriter gets his wish in the song’s new animated video, directed by Jamie Caliri (whose career spans from Morphine’s Grammy-nominated “Early to Bed” video to the end titles for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, by way of Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” clip). Rather than any of the reconstituted Shins lineup members’ forms, wretched or not, we see a somewhat disturbing assortment of old-timey figures with dark magic powers. It wouldn’t be the first time the Oh, Inverted World tune-smith pulled a rabbit out of a hat. As SPIN reported last week, this clip, which is running on Nowness for 24 hours, originally appeared via Nintendo’s 3DS.

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Alessandro Cortini tends to surround himself with darkness. The Italian producer is most infamous as a torturer of modular synths and other bleak electronics for Los Angeles’ most famous industrial-goths, Nine Inch Nails. His previous solo LP, Sonno, slinked out on Prurient’s Hospital Productions — a bastion of the crepuscular, if there ever was one. And… More »